10 killed, 10 injured in Texas school shooting

Student at school suspected and is in custody

Law enforcement officers are seen responding to Santa Fe High School following a shooting incident in this Harris County Sheriff Office photo released on May 18. (Courtesy HCSO)

SANTA FE, Texas — A male student entered a Texas high school on Friday and shot dead at least 10 people, including fellow pupils, officials said, just three months after a similar massacre in Florida sparked a youth-led “Never Again” gun-control movement.

Students said a gunman opened fire in a classroom at Santa Fe High School shortly before 8 a.m. CT on Friday, and that they fled in panic after seeing classmates wounded and a fire alarm triggered a full evacuation. On top of those killed, at least 10 people were injured, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.

It was the latest in a long series of deadly shootings at U.S. schools. Seventeen teens and educators were shot dead at a Parkland, Fla., high school in February, a massacre that stirred the nation’s long-running debate over gun ownership.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said that eight to 10 people, both students and adults, died in the incident at the school about 30 miles southeast of Houston.

“There is one person, a suspect, in custody and a second possible person of interest that is detained and being questioned,” Gonzalez said at a news conference.

One of the two people detained is Dimitrios Pagourtzis, according to a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation told Reuters. Several news outlets identified Pagourtzis, a student at the school, as the shooter.

Explosive devices had also been found at the school and off campus, Gonzalez tweeted. “Law enforcement is in the process of rendering them safe.”

The gunman was armed with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, a shotgun, a pistol and pipe bombs, the Houston Chronicle reported, citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official.

At least nine people were taken to area hospitals for treatment, hospital officials said. The condition of those people was not immediately clear. Gonzalez said a police officer was also being treated for injuries.

‘THE GUY BEHIND ME WAS DEAD’

Courtney Marshall, a 15-year-old freshman at the school, said the gunman came into her art class shooting.

“I wanted to take care of my friends, but I knew I had to get out of there,” Marshall said, saying that she saw at least one person hit. “I knew the guy behind me was dead.”

Orlando Gonzalez said that his 16-year-old son Keaton, fled the attack, but one of his friends was shot and wounded.

“I was really worried, I didn’t know what was going on … I almost couldn’t drive,” Gonzalez said. “I just imagine what he’s going through. … He’s still scared.”

President Donald Trump called the latest school massacre “absolutely horrific.”

“My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others,” Trump said at the White House.

Days after the Parkland shooting, Trump said that elected officials should be ready to “fight” the powerful National Rifle Association lobby group. Early this month he embraced that group, telling its annual meeting in Dallas “your Second Amendment rights are under siege.”

No major federal gun controls have been imposed since Parkland, though the administration is pursuing a proposed regulatory ban on “bump stocks,” which enable a semi-automatic rifle to fire a steady stream of bullets. The devices were used in an October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 59 people but have not played a role in other major U.S. mass shootings.

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